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NEWS MONITORING AND ANALYSIS
February 27, 2009
Friday
Headlines and top stories in today’s newspapers



'Binay sounding like a broken record', Philstar news page -- Allies of President Arroyo advised Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay to stop sounding like a “broken record” by insinuating that the chief executive will extend her term beyond June 2010.

Speaker Prospero Nograles, president of the ruling Lakas-CMD party of Mrs. Arroyo, said it is “already a given” and there is no need for anybody to force her to say that she will step down in 2010, as it is already “enshrined in the 1987 Constitution.”

“Stepping down after the term limit is in the Constitution. There is no need to say it again and again,” he reiterated.

Tamano denounces Abu Sayyaf kidnappings He appeals to kidnappers not to prolong the agony of Red Cross hostages and release them immediately -- COTABATO CITY: A known stalwart of the political opposition and a Muslim leader on Wednesday broke his silence to denounce even his fellow Muslims engaged in criminal acts like what the Abu Sayyaf is doing in kidnapping even innocent people engaged in humanitarian work like the three workers of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) who remains in captivity since January 15.

Senators press full automation of polls, Malaya news page -- SENATORS yesterday batted for full automation of the 2010 elections as they rejected the proposed "hybrid elections" or mix of manual and automated counting of votes.

"I support the position of Comelec chair Jose Melo in resisting the so-called ‘hybrid’ elections. The proposal will complicate and further confuse the vote counting process, which will only serve the purposes of poll cheats. It will only open opportunities for cheat operators to use their ‘Garci’ templates again extensively, holding candidates as hostages," Sen. Pia Cayetano said.

House wants hybrid polls, Philstar banner story -- Speaker Prospero Nograles indicated yesterday that the House of Representatives would insist on a hybrid or partial automation of next year’s general elections.

“Hybrid may be a compromise at least for this election. Partial automation is better than none at all,” Nograles toldThe STAR.

Senate-House clash on poll automation looms, Manila Times news page -- A clash between the House and the Senate on poll automation appears imminent, which could further endanger the modernization of the elections that was supposed to have started in 1998.

Fully automated 2010 elections in peril, PDI news page -- Melo said the Comelec is considering the idea of partially computerizing the 2010 polls as the delay in the release of the budget has considerably reduced the time to prepare for the country’s first-ever national computerized elections.

Blacklisted firms confirm corruption in road projects, abs-cbn news.com/Newsbreak -- The smoking gun came straight from the horses’ mouth.

Firms previously engaged in and eventually banned from World Bank-funded projects had confirmed that politicians and rebel groups get a share in road projects, causing costs to skyrocket.

At least one admitted that a cartel involving national politicians operates at the Department of Public Works and Highways.

These were based on the WB’s Notice Sanction Proceedings, which Senator Panfilo Lacson provided to the Senate. The document recorded interviews of the WB’s Integrity Vice Presidency, also referred to as the INT, with various individuals involved in the controversial road project.

The WB has blacklisted seven firms, two of them Filipino contractors, after it established that they take part in collusive schemes. The controversy has dragged the name of First Gentleman Miguel Arroyo.

One high-ranking executive of a foreign construction firm confirmed with investigators of the INT that money was paid to a former lawmaker to help the company corner projects. The company was one of those that WB debarred.

Corruption in gov’t, judiciary widespread — US State Dep’t, Tribune banner story -- REPORT ALSO CITES ALLEGATIONS OF GOV’T TORTURE The US State Department cited widespread corruption in the Philippine government, including the judiciary, as a major obstacle to human rights and criticized President Arroyo’s administration for its lack of political will to resolve the problem.

In its 2008 Human Rights Report, the State Department said that amid the existence of anti-corruption bodies, corrupt practices among government officials remain pervasive.

US report: RP judiciary corrupt, inefficient, Philstar front page -- A US State Department report said corruption and inefficiency in the judicial system have undermined human rights in the Philippines and caused “widespread skepticism” of due process.

“The law provides for an independent judiciary; however, the judicial system suffered from corruption and inefficiency,” the State Department’s 2008 Country Report on Human Rights Practices in the Philippines released yesterday said.

Guarding press freedom, Malaya news page – The Philippine Press Institute will definitely go to the Supreme Court if this bill becomes a law. The bill is definitely an attempt to interfere with editorial judgment and in effect curb our freedom. It is a dictation on the press by the state.

Right of Reply faces GMA veto, Philstar front page -- President Arroyo will veto the Right of Reply Bill if she finds its provisions would trample on the freedoms of the press and of expression, Malacañang said yesterday.

Deputy presidential spokesman Anthony Golez said Mrs. Arroyo will not tolerate any infringement on these constitutionally guaranteed freedoms.

Special session sought for poll budget, PDI news page -- Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri on Thursday said he was willing to sponsor a Senate resolution to ask President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to call for a special session of Congress, possibly a two-day session from April 6 to 7.

‘Priority No. 556’ dies before interview, PDI news page -- He finally got an appointment—“Priority No. 556”—for an interview.

But then again, the line had always moved way too slow for the likes of Benito Dumaguit, 84.

Dumaguit died of a lingering heart ailment at his home in Gorordo Avenue, Cebu City, on Wednesday, a day before he was to be interviewed concerning his share in the recently approved benefits from the US government for Filipino World War II veterans.

Dumaguit and comrades had waited 63 years for such payment from Washington. An estimated 18,000 surviving veterans are expected to file claims, most of them now in their 80s and 90s, and are said to be dying at a rate of 10 a day.

Documents in hand, Dumaguit’s son Gil on Thursday went to Camp Lapu-lapu, venue of the interviews, to ask the Philippine Veterans Affairs Office (PVAO) if his now grieving family would still receive the $9,000 lump sum package.

The answer he got was not encouraging.


'Nicole' asks Supreme Court: Reverse Visiting Forces Agreement ruling, Philstar banner story -- Rape victim “Nicole,” two former senators and five cause-oriented groups asked the Supreme Court (SC) yesterday to order the immediate transfer of convicted rapist US Marine Lance Corporal Daniel Smith to Philippine custody.

The petitioners also called on the SC to reverse its decision affirming the constitutionality of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA).

BSP files criminal case vs Legacy owner, PDI front page -- The central bank, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Thursday charged Celso de los Angeles Jr. and other officials of a Legacy bank with a P1-billion syndicated estafa (fraud) in the Department of Justice. Syndicated estafa is a nonbailable offense.

P1B syndicated estafa raps vs Legacy owner , Malaya banner story -- THE Bangko Sentral yesterday filed charges of syndicated estafa involving P1 billion against Celso delos Angeles and other officers of the Legacy Group and affiliated companies.

The latest charges stemmed from the siphoning of the deposits of the Rural Bank of DARBCI, one of the 13 failed banks under the Legacy Group with branches in Cebu and General Santos cities.

CBCP rejects nuclear power plant revival, PDI banner story -- The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) has thrown its weight behind the opposition to rehabilitating the mothballed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP).

In a pastoral statement, the CBCP urged Congress to “completely and irrevocably reject the opening of the nuclear plant as the most dangerous and expensive way to generate electricity.”

Local government units to receive P40-billion increase in internal revenue allotments, Philstar news page -- Local government units (LGUs) will receive a P40-billion increase in their internal revenue allotments (IRA) from tax collections of the National Government, President Arroyo announced yesterday.

Citing the role of LGUs in helping build a stable economy, Mrs. Arroyo, in her speech at the convention of the Vice Mayors’ League of the Philippines in Cagayan de Oro City, Misamis Oriental, said local governments would get 40 centavos for every P1 of tax collected by the National Government.

Church group joins call for Gutierrez to resign, Malaya news page -- Group convener Fr. Joe Dizon said the bid-rigging scandal is not the only corruption case where Gutierrez has been remiss in her duties and responsibilities.

End killings, CHR chief dares cops, PDI news page -- De Lima also reminded the police to uphold human rights despite the confusion and adrenaline rush they may feel during armed encounters.

“There is no such thing as pro- or anti-government when it comes to human rights. There is only for human rights and against it. And for those of us on the side of human rights, there can be no fence-sitting,” she said in a speech at Camp Crame on Thursday.


Fidel’s lament ‘She does not deserve to commemorate an EDSA spirit she has never, never at all, cherished.’, Malaya Opinion -- Fidel Valdez Ramos, who together with Juan Ponce Enrile and the Reform the Armed Forces Movement, led the breakaway from the government of Ferdinand Marcos that culminated in what history now calls the "EDSA people power revolt," has reason to be miffed.

The woman he helped install into office, first by endorsing her along with Jose de Venecia as his party’s standard bearers in 1998, then once more in 2001, when his political nemesis and successor Joseph Estrada was on trial after his impeachment by the House, deigned it beneath her to attend the commemoration of the event that brought the forms of democracy back to life. She preferred to be across the street, visiting briefly one of those umpteenth job fairs organized by DOLE and its POEA to make the jobless scramble for the little mercies of available opportunities beyond these benighted shores.

GMA wasn't only one missing at EDSA rites GOTCHA By Jarius Bondoc , Philstar Opinion -- Gloria Macapagal Arroyo wasn’t the only one missing at the EDSA Revolt’s 23rd anniversary rite Wednesday. Absent too, though for other reasons, were leaders who had ousted tyrant Ferdinand Marcos in 1986. Cory Aquino was elsewhere recounting how fellow-anti-Marcos movers had tried to derail her Presidency. Her old comrades then, if not deceased, preferred to stay home. Nowhere were the two million or so professionals and intellectuals who had made up the four-day peaceful uprising. The computer experts who had exposed the Comelec’s rigging of snap-election results for Marcos against Aquino are now mostly working abroad.

Gone most tellingly was the spirit of People Power. Exercising the right to change a despotic, corrupt leader has become irrelevant. Filipinos have become alienated from their government. More so after an EDSA-Dos in Jan. 2001 brought back, in Arroyo’s person, Marcos’s regime.



Elected instead of appointed Ombudsman A LAW EACH DAY (Keeps Trouble Away) By Jose C. Sison Aside from being unnecessary, the call for the resignation of the Ombudsman is really futile if she is bent on clinging to her office. Resignation is an exercise of the will, done without outside compulsion. The only “compulsion” consistent with the exercise of free will is the inner voice telling her that she should already resign. This voice becomes audible only if the Ombudsman is sensitive enough to realize that her performance is below par based on the standards set by the Constitution and the law; and is perceptive enough to discern that she has not measured up to the qualifications of the position as the guardian and champion of the people against any illegal, unjust, improper or inefficient acts or omissions of public officials or government employees.

The right to edit, PDI editorial -- On Wednesday, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. challenged his “friends in the media” to offer him a “reasoned argument” against his right of reply bill, which has passed third reading in the Senate.

Analysis : Insidious censorship / Amando Doronila, PDI Opinion -- No democratic country in the world has ever passed legislation that requires the media to provide equal space and time to the replies of citizens offended by news stories.

The members of Congress have taken the lead of reinventing Philippine democracy by initiating legislation that claims to expand freedom of the press while pretending to ensure fairness to citizens who are victims of some news reports or commentaries. Their initiative takes the form of Senate Bill 2150, and House Bill 3306. Both would require the media to publish or broadcast the reply of a party offended by a news story on the same space and with the same prominence as the offending report.

Glimpses : One more EDSA / Jose Ma. Montelibano, PDI Opinion -- It surprised me little that Gloria Arroyo would say the world would not accept another EDSA, meaning another people-powered revolution. After all, in the one year she has left in her administration, only death through illness or people power can unseat her. In either scenario, her family, led by husband Mike Arroyo, will suddenly find a vulnerability that can cause actual panic behind closed doors.

Passion For Reason : Protectionism isn’t for professionals / Raul Pangalangan, PDI Opinion -- I am a total outsider to the high-profile feud within SGV & Co., the country’s leading accounting firm, and have followed the story only in the newspapers. Some accounts say that one camp has on its side the protectionist clause of the Constitution that excludes all foreigners from the practice of all professions. The argument goes: If the Manila-based SGV is “integrated” into the international firm Ernst & Young, the Filipino accountants will merely front for their foreign principals thus circumventing the Constitution, much to the chagrin of the politically correct nationalists hereabouts. I’m sure the row involves other complex issues, but my focus here is solely the entrenched protectionism of the professions, why it is disturbing and how we can solve it without Charter change. (Why give our impostor President yet another excuse for Charter change?)

As I See It : Curious case of Agnes Raguinan, teacher / Neal Cruz, PDI Opinion -- What’s going on in the Supreme Court ? It supposed to be the highest court in the land that corrects errors of lower courts and dispenses justice without fear or favor. Of late, however, this image of an incorruptible court has been tarnished. The case of retired Associate Justice Ruben Reyes is just one case in point.

Reyes was found guilty of grave misconduct by the en banc and fined P500,000, to be deducted from his retirement benefits, for leaking an unpromulgated and confidential decision on the citizenship of Negros Oriental province’s Rep. Jocelyn Limkaichong.

The American way Man at the Market by Jesse E. L. Bacon II, Tribune Business Opinion -- Surprising attitude

Not until I recently involved myself in numerous church activities did I realize the depth of anger harbored by those whom I mingled with in these activities against the unabated corruption in the Arroyo administration. We erroneously thought that our church mates simply didn’t care about the evils happening in the Arroyo administration. We were greatly surprised with the way church people denounced the corrupt ways of the Arroyo administration. God indeed works in very mysterious ways.